Machine Learning, or what the industry generally refers to as AI, has permeated many industries as a driving force that enables new-found capability and performance, such that it appears as though nearly everything is going “smart.” As I reported in September, even semiconductor chip design itself is being optimized with AI, and it’s making big strides in design efficiency for next-gen chip tech. Electronic Design Automation tools (EDA) bellwether, Synopsys, recently chalked up its 100th AI-designed chip tape-out with top industry players like STMicroelectronics, SK Hynix and Microsoft stepping out in endorsement of the company’s DSO.ai (Design Space Optimization) place and route technology, which is also available as cloud software tools as a service (SaaS) on Microsoft Azure.